The awesome Frank Morgan (the WIZARD, of course!) is Calvin Claymore, in a pretty calm, low-key role, compared to how we usually see him! Here, he's taking a senator out to try to work up support for his Europe war-children aid group. Takes a whole long time to get the plot going here... the usual song and dance numbers, some with Busby Berkely-type water-unison performances. All of a sudden, about half way through, the action really kicks into high gear; Claymore, who is married, is caught up in a scandal that may or may not be his fault. This one takes some strange turns, with blackmail, politics, and pitting friends and family against each other. Claymore's "wife" and "daughter" play pretty significant roles as well (Fay Holden and Ann Rutherford). Regular film viewers will recognize character actor Douglass Dumbrille as Prosecutor Donnelly; Dumbrille had appeared in films with the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope, usually as the shady, shifty foil. This one kind of goes all around the mulberry bush, as they used to say, but it's certainly entertaining. Director Sylvan Simon died quite young, at 41, about ten years after making this film. Frank Morgan himself would die quite young, at 59, about eight years after this film. Showing on Turner Classics, but with only 131 votes, they must not show this one very frequently. Pretty Good. I always enjoy anything with Frank Morgan.
Review of Washington Melodrama
